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Storm wary of Newcastle's NRL form

Greg Buckle

Newcastle may be winless but Storm coach Craig Bellamy needs no reminding about what the Knights achieved last time they came to Melbourne.

While unbeaten Melbourne will start strong favourites in Monday night's round three home game against the Knights, Bellamy is wary after watching Newcastle's 26-20 loss to Canberra last week.

"I know the Knights are a really good side," Bellamy said on Wednesday.

"They didn't lose by much the other day. They've got a lot of really dangerous players.

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"We only have to think to our last game last year. They came down here and won the semi-final game (by 18-16) and went to the preliminary final.

"I'm not taking anything out of what happened in the first two games."

The Storm have started the season with nail-biting one-point wins over Manly and Penrith and Bellamy says those results could prove especially valuable when the mid-season strain comes during the State of Origin period, with the likes of skipper Cameron Billy and Billy Slater involved.

"To be able to come out on top after the games have been so close is hopefully a good sign for us," he said.

"It's always nice early to have some wins on the board, especially in our situation.

"We always a bit of a tough period going through Origin with our key position players carrying a huge workload through that period.

"These wins early are really valuable for us.

"We try to be as good as we can be for that first game and hopefully that can get us off to a good start for the season.

"We've still got a long way to go, a lot of improvement.

"Hopefully we can just start doing a little build as we go through this next four to six weeks."

The Storm have built on the recent re-signing of skipper Smith to a four-year contract extension by this week retaining New Zealand international front-rower Jesse Bromwich for the same period.

"He (Bronwich) is right up there now with the top front-rowers in the game," Bellamy said.

"For us to keep him is a huge bonus. There were plenty of other clubs trying to get him.